Manufacturers generally recommend that ice-making freezers be cleaned every six months, and sometimes more frequently when supply water to the freezer has a high level of dissolved minerals. Mineral buildup on the freezer, auger, and ice extruder parts can lead to increased loading and early life failure of the ice-making freezer bearings and gearbox.
Each manufacturer has developed a cleaning process tailored to their equipment requirements based on the design and materials used to construct the ice-making freezer. The cleaning solution used to remove mineral buildup is generally a mixture of citric and phosphoric acids and warm water. Some of the cleaning processes can take as long as four hours, depending on the amount of mineral buildup. Also, each of the current cleaning methods requires disassembly of freezer components, which may expose a technician to potentially harmful cleaning solutions.